The Masters: Tiger's Back, Big TV Ratings And Secret Money

Lost amid all the Tiger Woods hype at The Masters this week is one important business detail: Neither CBS nor ESPN figure to make much money on the tournament – even if it attracts massive TV ratings.

For all of its prestige, The Masters is a uniquely un-commercialized event. The well-heeled members of Augusta National Golf Club, who own the tournament and its media rights, impose strict limits on sponsorship and do not allow more than four minutes of advertising per hour during telecasts of the tournament. (A typical PGA broadcast features eight minutes of commercials per hour.)

CBS and ESPN cannot promote any of their shows on the air during the tournament, and the only ads that are allowed are spots for The Masters' three sponsors -- ATT, IBM and ExxonMobil – and CBS and ESPN don't get a dime from those commercials. To offset the lack of advertising dollars, Augusta pays for the networks' productions costs. The amounts that CBS and ESPN pay to air the Masters, as well as the cost of the sponsorships, are closely-guarded secrets within the industry. (One sports marketing executive told me the sponsorships cost between $7 million and $10 million.)

The upshot: Even if Tiger ends up making a dramatic run on Sunday and attracts Super Bowl-esque ratings for CBS, "there will be no change in their revenue from the tournament," according to Neal Pilson, a sports-media consultant and the former president of CBS Sports. "I'm not sure [The Masters] will have any financial impact for the network," he said.

That's not to say The Masters have no value as a TV asset. ESPN, which began televising the first two rounds of the event in 2008, uses the tournament to showcase its various platforms and international channels. This year, it is also utilizing the event to promote its 3D production capabilities, and is producing a 3D broadcast of the event that will be available on most major cable systems and streamed on the tournament's official website. The network also convinced Augusta National to allow ESPN to show Woods' first tee shot live tomorrow morning, before the network's broadcast window begins in the afternoon.

For CBS, meanwhile, The Masters is part of the network's DNA – it has been televising the event since 1956. CBS is also the PGA's main network TV partner, so the tournament effectively serves as a weekend-long promotion for its golf coverage during the rest of the year. Another benefit: The final round broadcast typically generates a strong lead-in audience for "60 Minutes," CBS' flagship Sunday night news show – so Mike Wallace and Co., among others, will be rooting for Woods to stay in contention, as will Sean McManus (right), who oversees CBS' sports and news divisions.

The most-watched golf broadcast in history was the final round of the 1997 Masters, when nearly 43 million viewers watched Woods win his first Green Jacket. This weekend, though,"there will probably will more people watching Tiger than ever, maybe not with the same adoration, but with more interest," says golf agent Rockey Hambric, who represents former British Open champion Justin Leonard.

Ultimately, the biggest winner this weekend -- aside from the tournament's three exclusive sponsors -- figures to be the PGA Tour, which had been in a downward cycle even before Woods' transgressions became public last year. The scandal only made matters worse for the Tour, which was hit particularly hard by the recession and the erosion of the financial and automotive industries, which together sponsored about a third of all Tour events. There are currently 10 tournaments on the 2011 PGA Tour schedule that do not have title sponsors, and the circuit's TV deals with CBS and NBC will be up for re-negotiation next year as well.

As has been well-documented over the years, Tiger's mere presence at an event has a dramatic effect on TV ratings – events that he plays draw twice as many TV viewers on average, compared to those he skips. "They live and breathe Tiger, he is absolutely essential for the health and survival of the tour," says Ben Sturner, president of Leverage, a New York-based sports marketing firm. "They've been in a world of hurt since he's been out."

What also remains to be seen, of course, is how corporate America will respond to Tiger's return. Several of his prominent marketing partners, including ATT, Accenture and Gillette, dropped him or pulled his ads in the wake of the sex scandal, and CBS barely featured him in its extensive promotion of The Masters' during the recent NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Nike and EA Sports, on the other hand, have steadfastly stood by the golfer, and are milking his return this weekend. On Monday, EA announced the debut of an online version of their wildly-popular "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" game, and today, Nike will air a new commercial featuring Tiger on ESPN and The Golf Channel. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the ad, shot in black-and-white, features Woods looking directly at camera while the voice of his late father, Earl Woods, is heard delivering the following message: "I want to find out what your thinking was; I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?"